TOLUCELLA. 



145 



Gexotipe, Mmca peUucens, L. ; by designation of Curtis, 1833. 



Head as broad as tliorax or a little narrower ; frons but little 

 produced ; eyes pubescent in S at least on upper part, bare in 

 5 *, contiguous in J for a considerable space ; face barely 

 lioIlo\\>'d uuder anteniue, but ])roduced abruptly into a very large 

 centriil bump, below which a slight excavation may appear above 

 the still more produced upper mouth-border. Antenuce moder- 

 ately long, 3rd joint elongate, arista nearly basal, very plumose. 

 Thorax quadrate, with long and dense pubescence (like that of 



Fig. 32. — I'oliicella ntficanda,'Brun., (^ . 



Bomhiis) or with deu.se short inconspicuous pubescence ; some 

 strong black bristles above base of wing, on post-alar calli and back 

 of mesopleura, along sides of thorax and round margin of 

 scutelluin. Ahdovien short-ovate, broader than thorax, with 

 pubescence like that of the thorax. Legs simple. Wings with a 

 characteristic venation ; marginal cell closed, anterior cross- vein 

 distinctly before middle of discal cell, apical portion of 4th vein 

 strongly recurrent ; :^nd vein bristly at base. 



Life-history. The larvas live in bees' and hornets' nests, where 

 they devour not the living hymenopterous larva) as was at Hrst 

 supposed, but the dead larva) and pupse. Thus they are 

 scavengers, and their presence in the liives is not resented. 



Ramie. The world, except Australia. 



An exceedingly well-inarked genus, many of the species showing 

 great resemblance to humble-bees, wasps and hornets. 



Verrall makes the very interesting statement that of one of the 

 commonest British species, V. bom/>ylons, L., about 60 per cent, of 

 the specimens mimic the common bee liomhus terrestris, and about 

 38 per cent, mimic J>. lapidarius. while the remaining 2 per cent, 

 may have tlie coh)ur-sclieme ol almost any species of Bomhus; the 

 various forms jiair promiscuously. 



* Except in one Europoiiu species, V. inflata, Fabr., and possibly certain 

 others. 



